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About this Site and Me

Hi, I am an artist, wife, mom, gamer and the Elementary Art Educator at Donald Elementary, a sweet and wonderful school in Flower Mound, TX (outside of Dallas). This is a great place to see how we are integrating studio habits with technology and interdisciplinary connections.
I also love to share my "wisdom" (Re: Experiences. From mistakes.) about teaching Elementary Art.
I love what I do, and I've been doing it for a long time. Creating and teaching Art is what I live for. Enjoy.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The realities of teaching, part 2: SNOW. In Texas.

Our school, and it is SNOWING!

(Disclaimer for my East Coast friends and family: I KNOW. I love you, but say nothing! We do not have any resources to handle snow, nary a snow shovel nor snow boots nor snow blowers. Yes, my sister and my HS friends have 8 feet of snow and no power and yet they are going to work and their kids are going to school. But this is Texas, it is supposed to be 60 degrees!)

This is what we woke up to. This is NOT RIGHT. This is TOO COLD AND IT IS SNOWING AND IT IS TOO COLD...!!!!!!!! ARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

School was not cancelled, and two teachers fell in the parking lot. One was our music teacher, and she had to leave. Our PE teacher was supposed to be home sick, but no sub picked up her job and when she saw the music teacher had to leave, she decided to come to work. *props*

So that leaves me as the only somewhat healthy teacher on my team.

Dilemma:

No sub to cover music and a sick PE teacher.

Kids are WIRED.

They have not had recess in over 2 weeks.

I cannot teach my art lessons and have an additional 8-12 extra kids in my class. Won't work, not enough room to do what we are doing.

So what are we doing? Just keep swimming. This day is about keeping the kids safe and keeping the school day as normal as possible.

We combined all classes (by grade level) and had an impromptu Flex day:

5th grade enjoying a game of I don't know. Dodgeball? With Castles? I have no idea. I had a headache.

5th graders enjoying a Snow Party!

Shy girl--this is a good example of our winter gear. This is about it folks. We don't have snow pants or long underwear or anything like that...unless they are skiers. Then they have it.

The rest of the classes today are dancing to "Just Dance" videos projected on the wall like a drive in movie.

MAMMA MIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The entrance to our school--this will be frozen solid by dismissal. Black ice is the issue here. That is not fluffy, fun snow.

Who is this crazy masked man, shoveling and salting our school entrances in 19 degrees????

Oh, it is my sweet husband, Ken McReynolds!!!!!!!!

1st graders dancing to What Does the Fox Say? Hilarious.

We now have early dismissal: we get out 20 minutes early. Secondary is getting out first. Roads are skating rinks. Everyone be careful!

I will update with dismissal pix, because that should be AWESOME.

*UPDATE: dismissal was easy, lots of parents came and checked their kids out of school early. It was 50 today, the snow is gone. Catastrophe over.

·Flexible learning spaces: students are encouraged to sit, stand, sprawl to their hearts content, as long as they are thinking and acting as artists.

·Student work displayed in halls, online, in the community to further educate the public of the importance of Art Ed.

·Embracing the importance of STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, art and math) through knowledgeable curriculum integration, and taught by a knowledgeable master teacher.

·Seamless, meaningful integration of technology: Technology will not replace clay, painting, observational drawing, weaving, printmaking, etc. Technology is here to stay, and it can be used to make art even better!

·Using gamification and gaming as tools to allow our students to become creators, not just players.

·4th and 5th: personal iPad with access to a wide variety of technology and learning opportunities to meet 21st Century needs. This iPad travels with the student.

·MAC lab-class set for entire school use

·3 STEAM Labs

·Google Docs: used district-wide by staff and students to create and share documents. (We use Docs for our e-portfolios.)

Printing with Gelli plates

monoprints with texture and color theory

Drawing and iPads

He is using the time-lapse function to record his progress, which goes into the E-Portfolio!

Optical Illusions

3rd grade: using color and shape to create depth

Tech in the Art room

using tech to help with research, digital photography and e-portfolios